Mike Carter's Blog for Wine Packaging, Design & Marketing Insights

The Demise Of Stormhoek?

January 9, 2008

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The tragic news is that 2008 has not started well at Stormhoek. The Wine Conversation reported on Monday that Orbital Wines, the company behind the Stormhoek brands has gone into administration. Even worse, all ten staff, including MD Mike Paul, have lost their jobs.

According to one report a major retailer delisted Stormhoek recently because of “a lower retail price available to a competitor.” Well if this is correct it shows the power that these big supermarket groups really have, and how badly they can treat their suppliers if they don’t play the game according to their rules. It also highlights the danger of having all your eggs in one basket.

Josh at Pinotblogger rightly asks “Does Social Media Work For Wine”? “Marketing experts” will be debating this very point for a long time to come but in my opinion social media and blogs are just one part of your overall marketing strategy. Building brands takes time and plenty of money but Stormhoek’s selling price point probably didn’t leave much fat for the latter.